I'm cheap. I'm using Finale Notepad 2007. It's not bad, and it's free, but it's not great. The midi lab at my college has the professional version of Finale, and it's a lot nicer.
I used to use Noteworthy, and it's a decent programme as far as it goes. Has a useful user forum and a free version that's fairly comprehensive if you don't mind the watermarks.
However, I invested in Sibelius 3 last year. Haven't used it much yet and I'm still learning, but it's quite user-friendly and versatile if you have the money to spend on it - which isn't so much now, I think, because there's a newer version out.
I used Noteworthy for a long time, until I started writing for handbells and harp. Now I find Sibelius (I have version 4) essential... I can mark lever changes, pedal changes, and with one (or two) click s, create a bells needed chart. I love it!
Not to mention the ability to export Scorch pages for my website, so people can preview the music! It's a pretty neat tool: www.monikadurbin.com/formiapress
Hm. I prefer sibelius, but finale's OKAY but it's not that great for composing complex pieces. I think a very versatile one is actually Guitar Pro, but you need to write out all of the parts in guitar tablature.
well to reply to what the person above me said, you dont need to use guitar tab to use guitar pro. a midi board works just as well. but if u dont have one u can hide the tablature(like i do) and just use the standard notation. i like guitar pro better than finale,but ive never tried noteworthy. I should look into it
It's free? Mine says it's a "30 - day trial", but I've used it for much more than that... Noteworthy composer is a good way to do it, although I can never find how to do the trills and little embelishments like that.
I agree with Norby, Sibelius is the way I went and I do not regret it in the least. If you're a student you can get the student discount and buy it for like $200 instead of $600.
Re: which software do you offer to compose music? 20:17 on Sunday, August 12, 2007
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Account Closed (394 points)
To compose music, that assumes sheet music right (write?)? I suggest Cubasis VST for older computers (or the newest Cubase 4.4 for new computers) for composing. Not for sheet music but for composing. Cubase has the virtual studio for the MIDI professional all figured out. The use of VST and virtual instruments via MIDI as well as the standard MIDI and multi-track audio recording make it the ideal tool. The others like Finale are basically more for producing sheet music using the standard MIDI tools. Yes, they are multi-tracked, and produce wonderful sheet music (I also have used older cheaper ones like Muziktime.) but for actually working the creative process, I feel you need to work with programs that can use all the MIDI tools, the sheet music and transcription processes are better left to a program that does that well...which I recommend Finale!
searching...
It's free? Mine says it's a "30 - day trial", but I've used it for much more than that... Noteworthy composer is a good way to do it, although I can never find how to do the trills and little embelishments like that.